discovery, early October, a sample of 88 grams a family named predestined Cornette who started the buzz. In the Essonne, about twenty miles from Paris, the small town of Draveil received on July 13, between 11 and 13 hours, the visit of an object from the sky which has attracted the curious and stirs up all desires: a meteorite. Upon entering the atmosphere, it was broken into several pieces found on rooftops or in gardens. Read more
Whereas collectors mostly scour inhospitable desert regions, this time they are searching in a densely populated conurbation for dozens of fragments of a 4.5 billion-year-old rock. That explains why there are so many people taking part, with scientists, dealers and enthusiasts all trying to enrol the Parisian population in the search. Read more
Une météorite tombe sur la maison de... Mme Comette
C'est une rareté scientifique et un joli clin d'oeil venu du ciel. Un objet extraterrestre s'est écrasé sur le toit de... Mme Comette, dans la banlieue sud de Paris! C'est une météorite vieille de 4,57 milliards d'années qui a fini sa course céleste à Draveil (Essonne). Pour la jeune chanceuse de 32 ans, au nom prédestiné et par ailleurs comptable au ministère des Finances, "une météorite dans un jardin, c'est féerique et plus improbable que de gagner au Loto".
Scientists said it was the first such space rock ever to have been found so close to the French capital and one of only about 60 meteorites to have landed in France in the past four centuries. In a further twist of fate, the family who received the heaven-sent object in Draveil, about 12 miles south of Paris, are called the Comettes. Read more
An egg-sized meteorite believed to be 4.57bn years old smashed through the roof of the Comette family home on the outskirts of Paris some time over the summer when everyone was away on holiday. And there the rock, blackened by its journey through Earth's atmosphere stayed, buried in the roof insulation, until Hugo's mother, civil servant Martine Comette, 32, noticed the roof was leaking and called out someone to fix it. Read more